Sir, – Mairin de Burca advises the Irish media and spokespeople for the various vested interests who criticise figures and hold demonstrations that they "be specific about the issues" and refrain from "indulging in personal attacks" on democratically elected politicians (November 17th).
Too much of the coverage of public affairs in recent years, especially on internet forums, was devoted to either making celebrities of certain powerful and influential people or ridiculing them in a very personal and offensive way.
As Mairin de Burca says, this tendency “could have untold repercussions for our democracy”.
In this regard, given the deplorable level of the personalised and partisan so-called democratic discourse on most online forums, it is not in the interest of any citizen of any democracy that mainstream media adopt the worst features of these forums. – Yours, etc,
A LEAVY,
Sutton,
Dublin 13.